ELECTRIC CHAIR-ITY

Bruins execute themselves with bad execution and 4 Giveaways in 28-7 loss, but continue to close the gap: Despite the gift Turnovers and Prince getting injured, it was still a 1-possession game with 91 seconds to go, AT the Mausoleum

It was 14-7, with less than 2 minutes to go, IN South Central. Call that: “Progress, UCLA.” Sure, sc went on to add two TD’s, but UCLA was alive for 58 minutes, and except for the miraculous 13-9 victory, 58 minutes of life is a huge improvement for the Bruins.

UCLA’s Defense stepped up to the occasion, shutting out the sc Offense for most of the game. But when the Bruins Offense finally scored — on a short, Chane Moline run with 5:41 left to make it 14-7 — the Bruin D was unable to stop sc to get the ball back. Instead sc drove down the field for a score, to make it 21-7. The Bruins had only 1:30 left, with Kevin Craft replacing injured Kevin Prince at QB, and they were unable to score. The trojans took over, and took a knee, but Rick Neuheisel called a time out.

Neuheisel’s decision to call a time out there in an unwinnable game is questionable. He doesn’t want to look like a quitter to his team, so he is obligated to use everything he has left at his disposal, including all his time outs — They could fumble a snap on a kneeldown attempt. However, it could also be considered kind of bush league. The game is over, and the winning team is just letting the clock run out. Just let it go. But Rick didn’t, and Pete didn’t like it.

After the time out, instead of having QB Matt Barkley kneel again — AND INSTEAD OF CALLING A RUNNING PLAY — Carroll had Barkley go Play-Action. Barkley faked a hand-off, and threw deep, to a streaking Damien Williams, for a 48-yard Touchdown.

The trojans went nuts, celebrating all over the field, and coming out collectively, taunting the Bruins. The UCLA players refused to back down, and when they stood up to sc, there was almost a bench-clearing brawl, as the players jawed at each other, and coaches had to hold some players back from confrontation.

Did Neuheisel have it coming? Possibly. Neuheisel thinks so. But the point is, that Pete could have easily just accepted that Rick was trying to “always compete” to the end, with his very young players, by using his alloted time outs. Pete could have just had Barkley kneel again. OR, if he wanted to send a little message, he could have called a running play. But to call a FAKE running play that is actually a long bomb, well, that is just RUNNING UP THE SCORE. In this case, I GET why he did it, but the point is, he DID it, and it absolutely PROVES what I said here last week. During the “What’s YOUR Deal” controversy, some guy wrote in claiming that Pete has never run up the score. Let’s see if that guy writes in again. He probably will, since his trojans won, but he’ll use a different name so as to distance himself from the ignorant comments denying Pete’s proclivity to pour it on, a trait proved Saturday night for all to see.

As for the game, I don’t like to go in depth about pathetic losses like this, especially at 7 in the morning without sleep, but in brief: While the trojan Running Backs were fairly productive, the Bruins’ Chane Moline couldn’t run, and Prince, and Craft, when inserted, couldn’t hit their Receivers consistently, so they both ended up running themselves (and not far enough). And that’s despite good pass-blocking by the Bruin O-line. But it was the Turnovers — 3 INT’s and a fumble by Nelson Rosario — that really cost them. The fumble came while in Field Goal range, one of the INT’s led to a short TD drive, and the first INT was a 62-yard Pick Six.

That’s enough for now. Here are the photos, taken, unfortuantely, from the 84th row. Click them to enlarge (but they might be a little grainy if you do), and roll over them for the hidden captions to pop up. The captions will tell you about the pics, or they will give you some more nuggets of whiz-dumb about the SUCFEST.

Comments on "ELECTRIC CHAIR-ITY": 11 Comments

tswenson wrote,

Pete or his thugs have no class – but we all knew that already. I hope one day soon, Matt Barkley and Petey get theirs. Let this loss burn in our hearts and minds for 370 days and let’s KILL those thugs next year.

Great pics as usual T-H! I’m glad you made it out of enemy territory alive. The Bruins had their chances but as usual, when you turn it over the way we did coupled with an offense that can’t strike quick, it’s tough to win. As for the yellow and ketchup histrionics at the end of the game, I think we all know where we stand.

While losing to sc stinks, it’s great to be a Bruin and wear Blue and Gold. The trojans can gloat over carroll all they want. They all deserve one another.

Ironically, I think that Carroll was the one who was showing the most respect for the UCLA offense: his were the actions of a man who thought that maybe, just maybe, UCLA might be able to pull off the upset of the year. And who among the Bruin faithful wasn’t dreaming of it? Imagine: USC takes another knee, or maybe has ANOTHER running play stuffed down their throats, and they have to punt … 40 seconds left, bomb to the endzone, touchdown! Onside kick, UCLA recovers! A couple of quick passes to the sideline, then touchdown! Two point conversion, and UCLA wins! Westwood burns!

It was precisely this scenario that Carroll was trying to avoid; and making it a three touchdown game puts the above dream, however remote, on ice. But if he HADN’T, and if UCLA *had* made the comeback of the year, boy oh boy would we be talking about what a genius Neuheisel was for calling those timeouts!

Now, WE may not think that UCLA could have pulled it off; and the ESPN sportscasters may not have thought it possible; and maybe even the UCLA players didn’t think they could pull it off (they looked pretty discouraged); as I said, ironically, the one person who seems to think UCLA might have done it is Pete.

[T-H’s Note: Utterly absurd. Not even Pete is claiming that he thought a comeback was a possibility. He did it for the shock value, and because he is who he is. He thought Neuheisel should have let the clock expire. He didn’t like the time out, so he followed a knee with a bomb. I defy you to find that kneel-bomb sequence EVER happening before, in Football History. Only Pete.]

Well, I don’t think I’m the only Trojan fan that disagrees with the deep TD pass Saturday night, despite the tens of thousands that were celebrating the play at the Coliseum. I didn’t think Carroll agreed with that type of stuff because I’ve watched SC run the ball the entire 2nd half so many times. Heck, at WSU in ’08 he took Sanchez out at halftime (I believe Sanchez had 5 TDs and would’ve broken the USC single-game TD record with 1 more). Jon Gold’s InsideUCLA blog summed it up perfectly in his segment about his take on USC throwing the deep TD late. He said both coaches were correct.
Specifically, http://insidesocal.com/ucla/2009/11/my-take-on-the-last-minute-of.html
And I think he’s exactly right. Maybe this is what the USC-UCLA “rivalry” needed right now.
I don’t agree with the call, but I don’t think as big a deal would’ve been made had Alterraun Verner or the other UCLA defensive back made a play and caused an incompletion, however, Damian (*not Damien) Williams caught the ball and thus caused all the fuss.
We’ll see how this incident affects the rivalry in the future.

[T-H’s Note: I never waste time checking spelling on trojan names. If I get it wrong, just consider it a sign of disrespect. As for the call, please see SI.com, where Seth Davis summed it up nicely: “It’s official: Pete Carroll is a no-class lowlife. Does he have any notion he is supposed to be an educator?”]

Gotta love it! The rivalry is still alive. Well, I thought that it was a rivalry but this site is just pure hate. Is it just my experience or is there nothing that Bruin fans desire more than to beat/bad mouth USC (even at the expense of a season)? I get emotional about my school too but not so much to list murdering alumni as a reason to hate. Sheesh!
Either way, I think that Rick and Norm have the program on the right path and do not see USC winning next year against the Bruins. This Rivalry seems to go in cycles anyway (remember the 8 game win streak?). Other than that, the whole Pac-10 has their work cut out for them. I cant think of a time when there has been so much talent across these ten schools. I’m just praying that all Pac-10 bowl teams win their bowl games. We wont get the respect that we all deserve if we can’t beat the other conferences. That has always been our problem.
Oh, and as far as that last toughdown goes… Barkley took the knee to run out the clock and Rick called one of his many remaining time-outs. It’s a no brainer to call a play and take more time off the clock. I just don’t understand why the receiver wasn’t covered that time. Even PC looked surprised when it was caught.

Good luck on your bowl guys! Believe it or not, I will be cheering for you every game except against SC!

[T-H’s Note: No, the no-brainer was to call a running play, or throw for a first down, not go for more points. But forget about that. Most Bruin fans are MORE perturbed by his classless celebration and his team’s taunting, than by the unprecedented bomb after kneeling. And if you are bothered by the O.J. thing, then take his damn jersey off the Coliseum, stop selling his jersey in the student store, and just stop spitting on Nicole’s grave. Finally, if you root for UCLA when the Bruins are not playing sc, then you don’t understand The Rivalry, and have no hope whatsoever of comprehending the intense, lifelong emotions and true passion that drive creating and maintaining this site. You must not have grown up immersed in the hatred of the close-quarters Rivalry.]

I had no problems with Pete going deep. It’s the stupid, adolescent jumping, high five-ing, idiotic display of emotions that really got me upset. John Wooden told his players before his first championship, that if they won the title, not to go crazy and act like an idot. Let the students and alum do that. Be a gracious winner. God, those were the good old days of collegiate athletics. Pete obvious is classless. He better watch his back.

I just find it funny that all of USC was whining about the whole “What’s Your Deal?!” thing against Stanford, yet they’re acting like this isn’t a problem at all.

Although I will say that even as a Bruin, I am glad that this happened. Now this rivalry is really heating up, I have faith in Neuheisel, he will bring our football program to prominence. Big steps have been taken these past two seasons. He and his staff know what they’re doing. If Price sticks around, Heisel (hopefully) scores in the recruiting game, Prince gets another year under his belt.. ahh man there’s just too many good things to list. Only thing we can do from here is look up. I’m not worried at all about the football program, it might take another season or two, but we’re obviously going somewhere.

You know, I have to agree with Statman. I think that PC felt that the UCLA defense was playing well enough to cause a fumble and possibly take advantage of all the remaining time outs.
UCLAs defense was really good most of the night and that pass would not have been attempted earlier on.
For most of the game, that long bomb would have most likely been an incomplete pass. I think that they half-expected an incomplete pass and another way to get the ball out of the pocket while letting time run out.
Either way, I agree that the taunting was pretty “Florida State/Miami” like. SC players need to act like they’ve been there before.

[T-H’s Note: Great. Another trojan in denial. You are welcome to your opinion, but around here, the consensus is clear: Neuheisel followed the “Coaches’ Bible” by calling time out (with a chance to get the ball back), while Pom Pom TORCHED that very same Bible by throwing a Bomb instead of RUNNING the ball (which would have forced UCLA to use another time out). Find me one single example of a College or Pro Coach throwing a bomb immediately after taking a knee, and THEN I’ll concede that Pom Pom isn’t the BIGGEST scumbag in the Nation — At that point, he’d only be in a TIE for biggest scumbag in the Nation. By the way, the notion that your cocky, arrogant Coach thought that the game was in jeopardy with a minute to go is patently absurd. But there is nothing surprising about a trojan inventing bullsh!t excuses for usc’s piss-poor and classless behavior, on and off the field. At least you are not proud of the sleazy taunting, like the rest of your brethren are.]

USC outgained UCLA by 14 yards, and if you take away the 48 yard pass, UCLA actually outgained USC for the game. UCLA also outgained USC in rushing 134 to 130, both had 18 first downs for the game, but the “unforced” turnovers killed UCLA that night.

In famous pete carroll words (changing “trojans” to “Bruins”) – “today, the Bruins beat the Bruins”…as bad a year as we Bruins feel we had with our team, please consider that we were in position to tie or win the game on the last drive attempt in every game this year with the exception of Cal and USC…a break here and a break there and who knows…we could have easily ended up 9-3. Oh well next year will be very different